The Big 12 Now Has A $50 Million Equity Partnership With The Players Era Festival

When you think about sports during Thanksgiving, football likely comes to mind. The Detroit Lions and Dallas Cowboys host games every year. Since 2006, the league has had a third game to create a full feast of pigskin action. But the Players Era Festival is trying to make the week of Thanksgiving jam-packed with college basketball. And it's opening up the checkbook to make it happen.

The Players Era announced a $50 million equity partnership with the Big 12 Conference. The deal, which is five years and features a 15% equity stake, includes eight automatic bids for the conference to the tournament. Every team that plays receives $1 million in name, image, and likeness revenue, so it's an enticing deal.

Last year was the first iteration of the Players Era Festival. Eight teams played then, and there are 18 teams at this year's event. The men's field includes nine programs currently in the Top 25. There are also four Big 12 schools in the mix, including Baylor, Houston, Iowa State, and Kansas, led by Bill Self, the highest-paid coach in college basketball. This year has a women's bracket, as well, with South Carolina, UCLA, Texas, and Duke as the inaugural participants.

The games are hosted in Paradise, an unincorporated community adjacent to Las Vegas. Houston participated in last year's event, and coach Kelvin Sampson was pretty blunt about why the Cougars returned this season.

The Houston Cougars are one of the marquee teams in the Players Era Festival. (Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"They're giving us $1 million. That's why we're there, and I would say that's why all the teams are there," he said. "We didn't sign up for this to have a tournament where we could play each other. We signed up for this because they're giving us $1 million. If they decided to put a court down at some vacant lot and they'd give us $1 million, I'd go play there, too."

Additionally, Sampson cited donor fatigue as a contributing factor to the team's decision. Rather than having to ask donors and alumni for money, headlining an event for a $1 million influx of cash is a nice alternative.

When the event expands to 32 teams next year, the Players Era Festival will become a three-week event with four groups of eight teams. Two groups will play three games during the first week, two groups will play three games the second week, and the four group winners will participate in the third week to determine a champion.

From Selection Sunday to the crowning of a national champion, the NCAA Tournament takes four weeks and a day. The Players Era certainly won't be able to capture the magic of March Madness—it's arguably the most exciting event in all of sports—but the tournament hopes to stuff the holiday season full of quality on-court action. And it'll have the best conference in college basketball on its side.